Japan has been in a 14 year long deflationary cycle and depression, but so far this year they have had an economic turnaround. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), consumer prices will raise and improve from years past. Much of this has been accredited to the new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Calling it Abenomics, Shinzo hopes to bring the inflation rate down to 2%. However, the OECD still warns Japan that the economic recovery is “surrounded by uncertainty”.
Read more about this at http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/29/business/japan-oecd/index.html?hpt=ibu_mid